SRB

Kyle Muller (ATL #5 prospect per Fangraphs) and Freddy Tarnok (ATL #12 prospect per Fangraphs) are headed to Oakland. The more of a return from Atlanta, the less they're getting from us ? I'm guess still one more significant piece though

I'd guess there's a non-ace pitcher involved, like maybe Ashby

I think he's pretty firmly considered an offense-first catcher, though he's also just 24.

This is the most exciting transaction since the week we added Yelich/Cain at once. Love Contereras

!!!! Fairly credible as this is one of the guys from Jomboy Media

I have very little interest in Jansen relative to his likely asking price. Catchers catch fire all the time and put up a strong 248 PA sample before falling back down to earth. In my opinion he is being vastly overvalued. Sean Murphy, on the other hand, has been consistently good.

There's a difference between making a Rule 5 picks and stashing a struggling Rule 5 pick on the 25-man roster all season. Nothing wrong with taking a flier on a high-upside pick that the team thinks they can fix somehow. In the last Rule 5 draft the Red Sox landed Garett Whitlock, for example.

I really like this trade, though not sure how you can carry both Winker and Hiura on the roster unless they are planning to regularly start Winker in the field. Hiura trade imminent?

Brian Anderson is a really good player and wasn't that bad last year. Strange non-tender even given that he hasn't been able to stay healthy.

Clearing salary to sign Brandon Nimmo ?

I think some of you have not adjusted your MLB salary inflation in about 15-20 years. $11 million for Hunter Renfroe in 2023 is a no-brainer. Suter is a tough call, but I expect he'll be back since we need LHP in the bullpen. Caratini seems like a lock given our lack of catching. Perdomo is a non-tender. Gott would be borderline for me, but I'm guessing they'll bring him back. Gustave I could see going either way, depends how much they want to keep him around as a depth piece. Milner a definite tender as a LHP. The most interesting for me is Hiura. That's not a lot of money, and he was decent at times, but if he's not the full time DH then he doesn't have a clear role on the team.

Not to rag on a prospect, but I guarantee you the front office does not place a lot of value in a guy they traded for a high-upside flier who (as was angrily point out at the time of the trade) they could have just signed as a free agent a couple weeks earlier. You win some, you lose some. The "hindsight has proven me correct" critics are also very funny considering Rosenthal will contribute 0.0 WAR for us this season and Josh Hader (sadly) has put up considerable negative WAR since the trade deadline. What universe is Bob Nightengale posting from?

That's something of a false equivalency though, because the "positive" takes are based on an objective acknowledgement that on a certain level we as fans are incapable of accurately assessing prospect value based on lists from a handful of national outlets (which do not offer a complete picture for a number of reasons), and that we should trust that the front office is better than us at evaluating prospects. I'm fully with you that it's less fun for us as fans when the return is a couple of "low ranked" prospects rather than flashy names that we can insert into the Baseball America Top 100 list, and that's part of why I'm not a huge fan of the trade, but I also acknowledge that that reaction is somewhat irrational and I'm not going to call the prospects we got "worthless." To me the best comparison is not the Grisham trade, but the Adam Lind trade when a lot of posters on here were angry that we ended up with an unknown prospect named Freddy Peralta. The only scenario where I think we as fans can fairly be mad at the front office is if you think they just gave Hader away as a means of slashing 2023 payroll. But ownership has not operated the team that way in many years now, and it seems highly unlikely to me in a year that we are competing for the playoffs. I think the front office just really likes the return they got. (I personally would have preferred to keep Hader though, even if it meant just letting him walk after 2023 with a qualifying offer.)

I'm even less a fan of the trade now that it's clear the front office considered Lamet a throw-in, but just to correct one notion I've seen in various threads: I feel like there is zero chance the front office traded Josh Hader on a whim or that they didn't do their full due diligence in concluding that this was the best offer available. I suspect they've been soft shopping Hader (or at least fielding offers) for over a year now. In my mind there are two possibilities, either teams are more sophisticated than they used to be and are no longer willing to give up as much for closers, or the Brewers front office is extremely high on Gasser and Ruiz and considers them top 100 caliber prospects. (For the team's sake I'm hoping for the latter.)

I really don't like the Padres, but if the alternative is the Dodgers succeeding then I'm all in on the Padres bandwagon.

Am I correct that if they tried to option him and he rejected it, he would be a free agent with the Brewers on the hook for his salary, but if they DFA him and he gets claimed on waivers another team pays his salary? I assume that's the logic here. And there isn't an obvious spot on the major league bullpen at the moment (even before Rosenthal is ready). This clearly does make the Hader trade worse though, because it proves that the front office doesn't think they can fix Lamet or that they were acquiring an undervalued asset.

"10 innings" of a great reliever in the postseason is far more valuable than a low-level prospect. The prospect obsession on here is crazy.

Since June 1, the Brewers have had the third best offense in the NL behind the Dodgers and Braves. We have the second most HR in the NL this season behind the Braves. We have the fifth best OBP. I just feel like the contempt for our offense is not based in reality, in part because we have a balanced offense where everyone is contributing rather than one big superstar.

B+ I'm not jumping for joy but I think they concretely improved the team, in particular the bullpen, which will be huge in the postseason, and navigated the market well. I understand that people wanted a big bat, but who exactly was available to add? Josh Bell would have been nice, but he ended up part of the biggest trade package in recent memory, and in any event might not have been as big of an improvement as everyone seems to think. Over the remainder of the season, Steamer projects: Josh Bell, .349 wOBA, 123 wRC+ Rowdy Tellez, .341 wOBA, 118 wRC+ Could we have used him at DH instead? Yes, but if you are carrying two 1B/DHs (not to mention a third catcher at the moment), then I think you have to give up on McCutchen..... except McCutchen has finally started to look like the guy the front office was excited to add in the offseason. Since June 1, McCutchen has been hitting: Andrew McCutchen (since June 1), .363 wOBA, 133 wRC+ I don't see a difference-making bat anywhere else in the infield that was moved at the deadline. Could we have upgraded the outfield? Well, it's basically a non-starter to replace Yelich (our most expensive and highest upside player) or Renfroe (our best hitter this year). Nor would we want to. Again, they have been hitting quite well all summer: Christian Yelich (since June 1), .356 wOBA, 128 wRC+ Hunter Renfroe (since June 1), .365 wOBA, 135 wRC+ Which leaves centerfield. Only, it's not entirely clear how easily we could have gotten an offensive upgrade there. Ramon Laureano was presumably too expensive, since he didn't leave a rebuilding A's club, and who knows if the front office thinks he is worth it. Over the last two seasons Laureano and Taylor have been close to a wash anyway. I would have taken a flier on Gallo and played him in CF, but I'm not surprised the front office didn't want to take the gamble. They did add a guy in Ruiz who could help out in centerfield, even if he's ticketed for AAA to start.

Do you think we could acquire a guy with the upside of an All-Star closer in exchange for a low-level flier who the front office is presumably not very high on if he had pitched 70 IP and led his team to a World Series the year before?

If we'd signed Juan Soto out of the Dominican Republican we'd be sitting pretty too.

Unfortunately a good trade for the Cardinals...

Who cares? The fact is we didn't, and we have him now and the team is better off.

The last time he pitched, in 2020, he put up a 14.5 K/9, 1.90 ERA, 2.22 FIP, and after the Padres traded for him he went Sabathia mode and put up a 15.3 K/9, 0.00 ERA, 0.09 FIP (!!) in 10.0 IP.

Nice: RHP Devin Williams, 15.0 K/9, 1.30 FIP LHP Taylor Rogers, 10.5 K/9, 2.34 FIP RHP Trevor Rosenthal, 14.5 K/9, 2.22 FIP (2020) RHP Matt Bush, 11.1 K/9, 3.41 FIP LHP Hoby Milner, 7.6 K/9, 2.83 FIP RHP Jake Cousins, 13.2 K/9, 3.84 FIP (2021) RHP Brad Boxberger, 8.5 K/9, 4.00 FIP LHP Jake McGee, 8.8 K/9, 3.35 FIP (2021) RHP Dinelson Lamet, 11.0 K/9, 3.49 FIP (rest-of-season projection) LHP Brent Suter, 6.7 K/9, 3.71 FIP